The Spy Files - Wikileaks spin-off announced

Assange watches the watchmen

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At a press conference in London today, Julian Assange announced that a spin-off version of Wikileaks has been created to publish documents which refer to surveillance and privacy violations around the world.

Aptly called The Spy Files, the subsection of Wikileaks houses hundreds of documents which bring to light apparent spying on a global level and the technology used to intercept personal content.

The site has launched with a damning critique of the 'unregulated' world of spying and name checks the use of mobile phones and Facebook for surveillance use.

Watching the watchmen

"Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries," explained the blog post.

"The WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about 'good Western countries' exporting to 'bad developing world countries'.

"Western companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to Western intelligence agencies. In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest.

"In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations.

"Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market."

In all there are 287 files on the site, with Wikileaks hoping its site will open the world's eyes to the corporations benefiting from surveillance.

"The Wikileaks Spy Files reveal the details of which companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights."